Sanitary napkin, diaper, or hospital pad or the like



C. G. JOA

SANITARY NAPKIN, DIAPER, OR HOSPITAL PAD OR THE LIKE Filed July 19, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. CUQ? 6-. Jafl BY m, 446mm Arrazn/Ea/i c. G. JOA 3,291,131

OR HOSPITAL PAD OR THE LIKE Dec. 13, 1966 SANITARY NAPKIN, DIAPER,

4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 19, 1963 INVENTOR. CUPT. Ja

C. G- JQA Dec. 13, 1966 SANITARY NAPKIN, DIAPER, OR HOSPITAL PAD OR THE LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 19 1963 flll Illllll I] III IHH! lllll-l -l -I -I III III INVENTOR.

Cue?- 6. Jan

BY amjfllawwzd AT'rOZ/VEYS C. G. JOA

Dec. 13, W66

SANITARY NAPKIN, DIAPER, OR HOSPITAL PAD OR THE LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July 19, 1963 INVENTOR.

BY @M, MMYMM A 1- roe/v5 United States Patent G 3,291,131 SANITARY NAB KIN, DIAPER, R HOSPITAL PAD GK THE LIKE Curt G. Jun, Green Ridge, Fla. (P .U. Box 1121, Boynton Beach, Fla.) Fried July 19, 1963, Ser. No. 296,208 Claims. (till. 128-290) This invention relates to a sanitary napkin, diaper, or hospltal pad or the like, and a method of manufacture thereof.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my application 184,105, filed April 2, 1962.

Both structurally and in terms of method, the improvement is principally concerned with the pad. One embodiment may be generally of the type shown in the patent to Dudley 2,973,760 issued March 7, 1961, and by the use of various layers of flufi and creped wadding associated with a barrier ply of such material as polyethylene.

An important feature of the instant device consists in enclosing the ends of the pad by the extension of some of the creped tissue plies around the ends of the fluff components, the preferred arrangement being one in which the external tissue plies wrap the rest of the pad from end to end under a substantial degree of tension. This wrap has a great many advantages. In the first place, it insures against disintegration of the end portions of the fluff plies. Since the wrapped portions are along the sides of the bat from which the pad is cut, they are more subject to a loss of fiber than other portions of the fluff filler.

In the second place, the wrap eliminates any necessity of flattening and stiffening the ends of the pads, as has previously been required to hold the filler together and to maintain the pad shape and to assist the machine operation of spacing the fillers in the cover. By enclosing the ends, the pad may remain soft and will still be firm enough to satisfy machine requirements, these advantages being achieved without the heavy shock load to which the mechanism has heretofore been subjected by the die used in flattening. If the flattening operation is used at all, it can be much lighter and the die can operate at higher speeds.

Optionally, the moisture barrier ply can be used to provide a heat seal to the tissue plies if such seal is desired.

From a method standpoint, a significant feature is the formation of an endless bat, and the cutting of the bat into pad assemblies in one continuous operation, without the usual intervening step of winding the bat into severed rolls of material from which pads are subsequently made. Another significant step is the provision of ply connections, preferably along a plurality of lines parallel to the direction of movement of the work during assembly. These lines of connection can be made either by heat sealing or by glue lines, the latter being preferred to avoid the possibility of breaking the moisture barrier, as sometimes happens if the heat seal perforates the plastic sheet, The connections may also be made frictionally by appropriate choice of materials. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to any particular means of connection.

Another feature of the method involves the channelling of the advancing assembly preliminary to the final connection of some of the external plies with the wrapping tissue in order that such connection may be achieved without tension under conditions whereby the requisite degree of tension will develop when the work flattens after being released from the channelling influence.

In the course of manufacture, the two margins of the advancing work are subjected to substantial compression which somewhat flattens the work along both margins. At this stage, the work represents a continuous laminated web. The individual pads may be severed from this web by transverse cuts. In the case of sanitary napkin pads in which it is desired to have one end wider than the other, the cuts may converge to produce pads alternately reversed as to the position of their respective Wide ends. However, the invention is applicable to pads with parallel sides and to diapers and hospital pads and other products and hence is not limited to the convergent lines of severance.

Despite the fact that the compression of the fluff has been uniform as between the respective ends of the resulting pads, it will be found that after the compacting pressure in the construction of the composite batis relieved, the ensuing expansion of the fluff content thereof will tend to be greater at the wide end of the pad than at the narrow end thereof, thus giving the pad greater thickness at one end than the other, this being a frequently desired objective. The disparity in thickness between the wide and narrow ends of the end product is due to the fact that the greater mass of material at the wider end reacts upwardly rather than laterally in the course of its expansion.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in longitudinal section fragmentarily and diagrammatically illustrating apparatus used in the manufacture of pads according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary detail view taken in section on line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic enlarged detail view of a portion of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of that portion of the machine illustrated in .FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary plan view of work in process, including an optional process step which follows the operations performed by the equipment illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged diagrammatic view taken through work in process and showing the work at the point indicated by the line 66 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view in cross section through work in process and showing the work as it appears at the point indicated by the line 7-7 in FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a view taken in section on the line 8-8 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 9 is a view taken in section on the line 99 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 10 is a view taken in section on the line 1010 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIG. 10 showing diagrammatically and in section a modified construction.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged detail view in transverse section comparable to FIG. 6 but illustrating the various plies of a preferred embodiment as they appear in practice.

FIG. 13 is a view in transverse section through a completed pad embodying the invention, being similar to FIG. 10 but on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 14 is a view similar to FIG. 13 showing a modified embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 are fragmentary detail views in cross section respectively showing further modifications of the constructions of FIGS. 13 and 14.

FIG. 17 shows a completed sanitary napkin made up with a pad of the type shown in longitudinal section in FIG. 14.

FIG. 18 shows diagrammatically in plan a method of cutting pads which differs from that of FIG. 5.

FIG. 19 is a detail view in perspective showing on an enlarged scale a completed pad made in accordance with the teaching of FIG. 18.

FIG. 20 is a plan view of a hospital bed pad or diaper made according to the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a fragmentary enlarged detail View taken in section on line 2121 of FIG. 20.

FIG. 22 is a fragmentary enlarged detail view taken in section on the line 22-22 of FIG. 20.

The completed sanitary napkin 25 shown in FIG. 17 comprises a wrapper 27 having projecting ends at 29 and 31. While gauze may be used in accordance w th conventional practice, the particular wrapper shown 15 made in accordance with my application 95,767, filed February 2, 1961, which discloses a wrapper made of non-woven fabric. The fabric is a heat sealable material. The wrapper has a seam 33 from end to end made in any desired manner.

The pad as finished preliminary to wrapping may be of the construction shown in longitudinal section in FIGS. 13, 14, 15 or 16. The form of the finished sanltary napkin shown in FIG. 17 is such as to indicate that the pad therein is in accordance with FIG. 14. However, as illustrated in FIG. 14 the pad is inverted from the position in which it will be used, its lower face being the socalled body side.

While the number of plies and dimensions may be varied, the laminae will be described from the specific standpoint of the pad shown in FIG. 14, it being understood that the details are by way of exemplification and not by way of limitation.

The exposed body side lamination 35 is a ply of tissue which, in this specific installation is thirteen inches in length having end portions 37 and 39 folded about the ends of the composite pad and extending at least partway across the opposite face. Next to the lamina 35 there are two shorter plies of tissue making up a lamina 39. The two-ply lamina 36 is, in this embodiment, eight inches in length and in face contact with the bat 41, likewise eight inches long.

Contacting the opposite face of the bat is a two-ply lamina 43 six inches long. Next are the tissue plies 45 and 47, the latter being approximately eight inches in length and supplied with a sheet of plastic film 49 which not only establishes a moisture barrier but is used to effect heat seals at 51 and 53 to the ply 47. This sheet is materially longer than the ply 47 so that it can contact the over-folded extremities 37 and 39 of the body side of the tissue ply 35, being heat sealed thereto at 55 and 57 respectively. The several heat seals not only connect the vapor barrier sheet 49 to the ply 47 but further connect it with another tissue ply 59 or comparable length, the plies 47 and 59 being thereby connected with each other through the vapor barrier sheet 49. Such a sheet may be made of various materials of which polyethylene is an example.

The next element is another bat 61 of fluff. This bat will be the lower bat when the pad is in use in a sanitary napkin. In practice, this may be five and one-half inches in length. It is enclosed within a tissue lamina 63 which, in accordance with the present invention, is connected with the ends 37 and 39 of the body side of the ply 35 by knurled pressure rolls hereinafter described which interlock as represented diagrammatically at 65.

In the preferred construction shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, some of the plies or laminae are connected adhesively. However, before describing this construction, it is desired to refer briefly to the various modifications shown in FIGS. 11, 15 and 16 and which are applicable regardless of how the laminae are joined to each other. In the diagrammatically illustrated construction of FIG. 11, the ends 370 and 390 of the body-side 350 are made sufficiently long to completely lap the bat 61, being joined directly to each other by the fiber interlock diagrammatically shown at 650, thus eliminating the lamina 63 of FIG. 14.

In the construction shown in FIG. 15, the ends 69 of the heat seal ply and vapor barrier 49 are turned about the bat 61. The heat seal connection 550 now serves not merely to anchor the end 37 of the body-side ply 35 to the lamina 59 but also connects both lamina '9 and lamina 35 to the opposite face lamina 63, this connection being made directly adjacent the end of the bat 61.

In the construction shown in FIG. 16, the end 37 of the body side lamina 35 is secured by heat seal connection 551 to a somewhat longer lamina 631, the heat seal being effected through a vapor barrier sheet 491 which, in thls instance, is not between the bats 41 and 61 but underlies the bat 61.

In all embodiments, it is very important to note that the bats of fluff or wood pulp are completely enclosed at the ends of the pad, thus assuring against loss of fiber from the fluff bats. This advantage is retained in the preferred construction shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates the number of plies used in each lamina in practice, it being understood that this information, like the matters of dimension above given, are by way of example and not by way of limitation. The bodyside lamina 35 preferably comprises four plies of tissue, as does the contiguous lamina 36. In this embodiment, the lamina 36 is slightly longer than in FIG. 14 so that it also extends about the ends of the bat 41.

The lamina 45 is likewise four-ply in practice and the same is true of the lamina 48. The vapor barrier ply 49, instead of being heat sealed, is, in this instance, adhesively connected at 71 both to the lamina 47 and to the fourply lamina 59. The strips of adhesive shown at 71 are located centrally as well as adjacent each end of the laminae 47, 49 and 59.

The lamina 63 upon the face of the pad remote from the body side is likewise desirably of four-ply tissue and its length is such that it preferably projects beyond the bat 61. Fiber interlock 65 is used to connect the ends 37, 39 of the body facing lamina 55 to the opposite face lamina 53, as in the previously described embodiments.

The mechanism and procedure for making these products is illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4.

In accordance with the disclosure of my application Serial No. 646,696, filed March 18, 1957 now US. Patent 3,086,253, shredded wood fiber 73 is delivered pneumatically or otherwise upon the surface of a screen belt 75 operating upwardly over an upper vacuum pulley 79 from a lower pulley 81. Behind the belt 75, there are vacuum boxes 83 and 85 slightly spaced to provide two well-defined endless bats 87 and 89 as shown at FIG. 2. The thickness of these bats is determined by a succession of paddle wheels 91 and 93 which remove undesired surplus fiber deposited on screen 75.

Another vacuum box 95 extends downwardly from pulley 79 on the descending run of the screen belt 75 to hold the endless bat 87 intact until it leaves the screen belt and passes outwardly on the conveyor 97. The endless bat 89, in the meantime, is delivered onto conveyor belt 99, which has a slight inclination laterally of the machine to bring the bat 89 into registry with bat 87 in order that the two bats may be incorporated into the composite assembly in superposed relation.

The conveyor for the bat or fluff web 87 is discontinuous. The fluff web passes from conveyor 97 onto conveyor 101, which already carries web 103, which is a composite four-ply web of tissue from which is later severed the lamina 36 above described. From the conveyor 101, the web 103 and the end of bat 87 pass onto another conveyor 105 which carries a web 107 comprising four plies of tissue from which is later severed the lamina 35 above described.

As the bat 87 advances on successive conveyors 97 and 101, other laminae are applied to it. The web 109 comprising four plies of tissue is drawn from the supply roll 111 and ultimately provides the lamina 45. The web 113 on supply roll 115 likewise comprises four plies of tissue and ultimately becomes the lamina 47. The web 117 of polyethylene drawn from supply roll 119 passes between the glue rolls 121 and 123 and ultimately becomes the vapor barrier ply 49. After having stripes of glue applied to it at its side margins and center, the polyethylene Web is laminated with the web 113 and another web 125 is supplied from roll 127 and likewise comprismg four plies of tissue, a portion of this web later constituting the lamina 59 of the completed pad.

The several prelaminated webs 115, 117 and 125 pass unitarily onto the surface of the web 109, being pressed thereto by the lower part of the conveyor 129. The endless bat 89 is now added to the assembly. It passes downwardly between the guide conveyors 131 and 133 onto the previously assembled laminae as shown in FIG. 1.

At this point, the moving webs are engaged by folding wings 135 which fold upwardly and inwardly the margins 37 and 39 of the web 103. The rotary brushes 137 are disposed as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and are rotating at a speed greater than the rate of linear advance of the composite web so as to draw the margins 37 and 39 snugly inwardly about the ends of the rest of the webs. Thereupon 'web 139 from supply roll 141 is delivered on top of the snugly inturned margins 37 and 39. A portion of this web later will constitute the lamina 63 which faces away from the body.

To facilitate snugly pulling the margins 37 and 39 around the other plies, these margins are supported on a former 145 having a convex lower surface which channels the advancing multi-web assembly as best shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. The ends of the former 145 are divided .at 147 and 149 as shown in FIG. 9 and carry die rolls 151 with which the sprockets or gear-like dies 153 coact to produce the interlock of fiber diagrammatically shown at 65 and above described. When the advancing webs pass beyond the ends 147 and 149 of the former 145, the composite webs flatten out, thereby tensioning transversely the web 103 and the web 139 to snugly embrace all of the intervening webs. FIG. is a cross section through the web as it appears at this stage.

Preferably during its continued advance, the composite web is now out transversely to form pads. To make a sanitary napkin of the form shown in FIG. 17, saw cuts are made on converging lines as shown at 155 and 157 in FIG. 5. As clearly appears in FIG. 17, the finished sanitary napkin is materially wider at one end than at the other due to the converging lines of cut at 155 and 157.

A preferred procedure is illustrated diagrammatically in FIG. 18. The margins of the composite web are notched by the notching dies 159. Thereupon a saw cut on the dotted lines 161 connects the resulting notches 163 and 165 to produce the successive pads as shown in FIG. 19. Each pad is widest at its center and tapers toward both ends.

In making articles like bed pads or diapers, the procedure followed may be as diagrammatically illustrated in FIGS. 20 to 22. The product is quite different but similar equipment can be used to make it. As in the case of a sanitary napkin pad, the ends of the fluff pads are enclosed, thus eliminating loss of fiber which has heretofore occurred.

I claim:

1. A pad for a sanitary napkin or the like which oomprises a heat scalable moisture barrier ply, laminae above and below the barrier and each comprising flufl bats and tissue webs, each said lamina including web portions substantially enveloping the upper and lower surfaces of the respective bat and extending about opposite margins thereof, the heat scalable material of the barrier ply being fused to tissue web laminae having portions above and below the hat of at least one such lamina and providing a connection between said portions.

2. A santiary napkin comprising a pad and a wrapper enveloping the pad and having margins in heat sealed connection longitudinally of the pad, said pad comprising at least one fluff bat, a lamination of heat sealable material projecting beyond the ends of the bat, and tissue laminae above and below the bat and having marginal portions at the ends of the bat in heat sealed connection with each other, the connection including the material of said heat scalable lamination.

3. A sanitary napkin comprising a pad and a wrapper enveloping the'pad and having margins in heat sealed connection longitudinally of the pad, said pad comprising at least one fluff bat, a lamination of heat scalable ma terial projecting beyond the ends of the bat, and tissue laminae above and below the bat and having marginal portions at the ends of the bat in heat sealed connection with each other, the connection including the material of said heat scalable lamination, said pad comprising a plurality of fluff bats, the lamination of heat sealable material comprising a moisture barrier ply between the bats and the tissue laminae having said heat sealed connection being respectively above and below one of the bats and below the other, at least one such lamina being folded over said other bat at the ends thereof and having means completing the enclosure of said other bat across the top thereof.

4. A pad for sanitary napkins and the like comprising stacked elongated fluff bats, tissue laminae both above and below the bats, at least one such lamina extending around the ends of the bats, the sides being exposed, means for providing separate lines of connection anchoring said laminae together adjacent the respective ends thereof, and a moisture barrier lamina between said bats.

5. A pad according to claim 4 in which said moisture barrier lamina comprises heat scalable material in fused connection with both tissue laminae and providing the said means of connection therebetween.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,283,137 5/1942 Fine l5'6202 2,616,428 11/1952 Magee 128296 2,690,415 9/1954 Shuler #128-290 2,826,200 3/1958 Brien et al. l28290 2,896,626 7/1959 Voigtman 128-287 2,973,760 3/ 1961 Dudley 128290 3,031,356 4/1962 Bousquet et al l56-202 3,085,575 4/1963 De Woskin 128-290 3,203,419 8/1965 10a 128-290 CHARLES F. ROSENBAUM, Assistant Examiner.

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner. 

1. A PAD FOR A SANITARY NAPKIN OR THE LIKE WHICH COMPRISES A HEAT SEALABLE MOISTURE BARRIER PLY, LAMINAE ABOVE AND BELOW THE BARRIER AND EACH COMPRISING FLUFF BATS AND TISSUE WEBS, EACH SAID LAMINA INCLUDING WEB PORTIONS SUSBTANTIALLY ENVELOPING THE UPPER AND LOWER SURFACES OF THE RESPECTIVE BAT AND EXTENDING ABOUT OPPOSITE MARGINS THEREOF, THE HEAT SEALABLE MATERIAL OF THE BARRIER PLY BEING FUSED TO TISSUE WEB LAMINAE HAVING PORTIONS ABOVE AND BELOW THE BAT OF AT LEAST ONE SUCH LAMINA AND PROVIDING A CONNECTION BETWEEN SAID PORTIONS. 